Okay friends. Show of hands. How many of you have the all coveted “Expert in…” badges on your LinkedIn profile? I have a few. You probably do as well. It’s always nice to have the best answer and be seen as an expert in your arena. We’re proud of our badges.
If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, you can find a tab on your LinkedIn profile titled Answers. Here you’ll find a massive database of user generated knowledge that lives inside the network. The database is completely searchable and attracts millions and millions of questions each year.
Most people approach Answers just as the tab suggests. They answer as many questions as they can, and on occasion, they may ask a question that is related to a specific business challenge they face. Some users might try crowd sourcing for resources or partners through this feature. That works sometimes.
I’ve even seen some people who try to ask prospecting questions like; “Are you looking for a web design firm?“. If you’re one of the people doing that – here’s free consulting advice. Please stop. You’re wasting your time and it’s annoying the rest of us. By taking this approach, you’re making yourself and your business look desperate. It’s not going to work. Cool?
Dave Maskin’s Answer-Centric Strategy
Having a fancy badge doesn’t make you an expert. Sorry. Yes, they make you feel good, but this feature on LinkedIn is like everything else. It’s a system with rules that can be manipulated. It’s a game.
But answering can still work if you play the game right. For instance, let’s look at Dave Maskin:
Week after week, Dave is always the top Expert on LinkedIn. While I don’t know Dave personally, if you read his answers, he’s a pretty savvy entrepreneur with a unique business. Dave is really good at is playing the Answers game with a clear strategy.
- Choose to answer questions you know you can win.
- Pick questions where the competition for the best answer is low.
- Forming strategic alliances with the people that always look to you for knowledge.
- Spend tons of time searching for and answering questions.
I didn’t fully understand what he was doing at first, but in reality, Dave has is executing a winning business development strategy. I’m willing to bet his pipeline is filled by connections he’s made sharing his expertise.
What I like is that Dave is winning by doing good stuff, because what Best Answer badges really mean is that you’ve taken a few minutes to help someone else out by sharing a little bit of your knowledge. Being helpful is a good thing to do, even without the fancy badge. But, because of the rule of reciprocity (not affiliate link), the person you helped now has chosen to recognize you by selecting your answer as the best.
Perry Maughmer’s Question-Centric Strategy
If you’ve not yet met my friend Perry Maughmer, you should read his blog too. He’s a smart guy who’s taught me a lot about things like business strategy, keeping your focus and even new ways to think about communication. But Perry doesn’t get enough credit for what he knows (and can teach) about using social networks to accomplish business goals.
The video below is about 3 months old now. I use this in my Strategy Based LinkedIn presentation, but for some reason it never made my blog. As I was writing his, I realize that Perry practices the exact inverse of Dave Maskin’s LinkedIn Answers strategy. Where Dave is putting in the time and effort to build deeper LinekdIn relationships one to one, Perry’s approach helps him open potential relationships using a one-to-many approach.
Here’s Perry and I talking about how he uses LinkedIn Answers:
Perry Maughmer on LinkedIn Using Questions & Answers from Nate Riggs on Vimeo.
These are two Trust Agents employing different strategies to reach similar end results. And it’s working for both of them.
What do you think? Which approach could you apply to your business and how would you make it work for you?
Join The Discussion!